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Faith campaigns prompt early marriages

Indonesia is facing significant social changes, as is demonstrated by the trend of marriages among young people as they encounter a growing number of religious-based advocacy groups that say early marriage leads to an ideal life, activists say

Elly Burhaini Faizal (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, January 2, 2012

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Faith campaigns prompt early marriages

I

ndonesia is facing significant social changes, as is demonstrated by the trend of marriages among young people as they encounter a growing number of religious-based advocacy groups that say early marriage leads to an ideal life, activists say.

“It isn’t just about saying ‘it’s better to get married than commit adultery or sin’ but it is also about the idea of marriage and what it can bring to people so their life is more meaningful,” Nur Hidayati Handa-yani, a member of the Youth Advisory Panel of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Indonesia, said on Friday.

She believed that religious-based groups have advocated that young people get married early to protect them against illegal sexual acts as ruled by their religious principles.

“A woman’s life is said to be not complete without getting married and having children. This encourages young people to get married early,” said Handayani, adding that such faith-based campaigns had taken place in campuses through discussion and peer dialogue sessions.

According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) population census, the average age of marriage for Indonesian people declined to 19.2 years in 2010 from 19.8 in the 2000 census.

Sugiri Syarief of the National Demography and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), said the longer span of reproductive life would bring bigger impacts on the number of children that women could have during their lifetime, possibly hampering the country’s efforts to lower its population growth to 1.1 percent per year by 2015 from 1.49 percent in 2010.

“The average reproductive life span for a woman is about 30 years. They will have more children with a longer span of reproductive life.”

The trend of the young to marry is also apparent in the National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas), a series of large-scale multipurpose socioeconomic surveys, carried out in the last decade.

Terence H. Hull, a professor of demography from the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute at the Australian National University, said that there had not been a huge change between the age of marriage in 2000 and 2010. Rather than continuing to increase, however, the age of marriage was now going down,
he added.

“It means that those who have changed behavior, or now behave differently from their older sisters, are Muslims,” said Hull, who conducted the analysis on the 2010 census results.

Although people with low education levels got married at younger ages, the 2010 census showed that women enrolled in tertiary education levels were increasingly likely to be married early.

However, Hull said, it seemed that the foundation of moral changes and decisions that had been taking place in Indonesia reflected the desire to have a unified Indonesian identity.

“What is the strongest unifying force in Indonesia today? It is Islam,” he said.

Many young women are looking at their peer groups with growing interest in relation to the so-called romanticized view of marriage as they saw in movies and television shows.

“If the meaning of life is to find a soulmate and celebrate Valentine’s Day, then social media or group-based activities can be a strong motivational force that says just marry when you are ready to, because it is your life,” Hull said.

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